The Holganix Blog

Healthy Grow Infused with Holganix: A carbon based fertility option

Something special happens every time Holganix joins forces with another amazing turf care product. This is especially true when you introduce living, breathing Holganix with the organic matter- filled Healthy Grow by Pearl Valley Farms.

Over the past 18 years, Pearl Valley Farms has perfected the art and science of composting and manufacturing Healthy Grow by adopting the philosophy, “The Way It’s Made Matters.”

That’s why Holganix has partnered with Pearl Valley Farms to produce Healthy Grow Infused with Holganix. This granular fertilizer comes in several different analysis and can be fully organic or a hybrid (organic with some synthetic nutrients) depending on the analysis.

What is Healthy Grow?

Healthy Grow is a granular, organic based fertilizer created from egg laying poultry manure. H

ealthy Grow has an ACCM (Aerobically Composted Chicken Manure) base, which means the manure is aerobically composted over a 45 – 60 day period. After composting, it is further processed with other organic and traditional ingredients to create a nutrient rich, biological, and user-friendly fertilizer. Ultimately, this means Healthy Grow isn’t pasteurized (doesn’t inhibit living biology) and the smell associated with manure-based fertilizers is kept in check.

What else is so special about Healthy Grow? Healthy Grow is packed with organic matter containing carbon sources.

Organic matter contains carbon and other nutrients

Organic matter is dead and decomposing plant and animal matter within the soil.

When in excess, organic matter produces thatch layers that hinder growth at the surface and black layers that strangle and limit root growth below the surface. Yet, because organic matter contains a carbon source, it remains critical in helping to produce a vibrant soil ecosystem. Organic matter and soil contain nutrients and micronutrients important to plant health, but are often locked in a form that can’t be utilized by the plant. Carbon is a food source for microorganisms.

Ultimately, the microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, etc…) eat the carbon, which allows them to convert nitrogen and other nutrients locked in organic matter and elsewhere in the soil, to plant-useable forms. 

Take nitrogen as an example of a locked nutrient found in organic matter. Aerobic, heterotrophic bacteria are responsible for decomposition and mineralization. These bacteria help to decompose the plant remains and turn nitrogen that was locked within the organic matter into ammonium (N_H4⁺), which is a plant-usable form of nitrogen.

The same can be said for phosphorus (PO₄^2-), potassium (K⁺), as well as every other plant-usable form of nutrients necessary for plant growth.

Often when we look at our turf programs, we focus on nitrogen as a key element.

While nitrogen is crucial, the key question is: How much urea do we need to put down to make the grass green while still being cost effective? 

The thing to keep in mind is that nitrogen is just one piece of the puzzle. Phosphorus, potassium, calcium and certain other micronutrients are also pieces of the puzzle.

However, because the microbiology within the soil is able to eat the carbon found in organic matter and then unlock nutrients, carbon supplies many different pieces of the soil environment puzzle, not just one.

Healthy Grow contains all the wonderful aspects obtained from having an organic matter and carbon source base. At the same time, the poultry base contains small doses of naturally occurring NPK!

What happens when Healthy Grow meets Holganix?

Holganix is a 100% organic, bionutritional product teeming with living microorganisms whose job is to naturally promote plant health. Other ingredients contained within Holganix include but are not limited to: endo and ecto mycorrhizae, beneficial nematodes, meleluca oil, yucca and kelp extract as well as humic and fulvic acids.

With Holganix, plants grow beneath the soil in addition to above it.

“Highway” systems of roots dig deeper and weave between one another, creating the perfect support system for the plant. With healthier root systems, plants are better able to uptake moisture and withstand environmental stresses like drought and winter injury.

At the same time, with Holganix you’re feeding the plant and the soil, because when you have a healthy soil environment you have a healthy plant. That means your plants need up to 75% less nitrogen fertilizers and 25% less pesticides than through traditional synthetic programs.

When you combine Holganix with Healthy Grow, it’s like giving Healthy Grow Red Bull and as the saying goes, Healthy Grow “gets wings” and results are amplified.

Not only do you get the benefit of adding a carbon source to your roster of turf products, but you also get all the holistic benefits contained in a jug of Holganix.

Healthy Grow provides the carbon sources (food sources) to the living biology within Holganix. The beneficial microorganisms then go to work converting locked nutrients in the soil and organic matter into plant useable forms.

What does Healthy Grow Infused with Holganix mean for you?

At the end of the day, it all comes down to achieving an effective and sustainable way to manage turf grass. The Healthy Grow Infused with Holganix program can be marketed as an organic based program.

Furthermore, because Healthy Grow Infused with Holganix has 180 and 90 SGN options, it won’t affect play on fairways, approaches or putting greens.

Overall, a carbon-based, living bionutritional fertility program allows professionals to return nature back to their properties and provides a more sustainable solution for the unpredictable future of the green industry. 

There probably isn’t anything more American than American baseball. For many of us, warm evenings, hot dogs, and a local baseball game is an integral part of summer. For those of us at Holganix, our local team of choice is The Blue Rocks – a minor league team based in Wilmington, Delaware that is only a twenty-minute drive from headquarters.  From the Holganix college intern with memories of attempting (and failing) to catch her first baseball to the sales representative that enjoys taking his two boys to the annual monkey rodeo (a Delaware community event), the Blue Rocks hold many memories for the Holganix family.

Because of all of those memories culminated over the years, we were so excited when Steve Gold, turf manager of the Wilmington Blue Rocks decided to try the Holganix program three years ago.

“When I use a lot of chemicals on the turf,” says Gold, “I make the turf fat and dumb. That’s one of the reasons why I was so attracted to Holganix. Less synthetics? Sign me up!”

Gold is on the super inoculation Holganix program, utilizing large amounts of Holganix Bio 800⁺ in combination with three pounds of nitrogen annually. Before Holganix Bio 800⁺, Gold still used a lean nitrogen program but Holganix Bio 800⁺ has allowed him to take the next step. At the end of the day, it was the reduction in fungicides that really got Gold excited. “I hate fungicides,” states Gold passionately. “It’s the dark side of the turf industry.”

“The really great part is that we’ve cut back our fungicide applications from 15 per year to 2 to 3 depending on weather conditions. To me, seeing such a huge decrease in fungicide use means results.”

How can Holganix Bio 800⁺ help you reduce the need for fungicides? Holganix Bio 800⁺ products build functioning soils that result in resilient turf with deeper, thicker root systems. In fact, by having more resilient plants with a better root system, these plants are better able deal with the stresses caused by disease. The result is that you can often reduce the need for certain fungicides.

Like many in the industry, Gold has grown up on turf. “My mother worked at the spring training complex in Florida,” says Gold. “At age 15 I got a job cutting grass in the neighborhood. At that time nothing seemed cooler than being able to work the spring training complex.” Gold worked the training complex until he graduated high school. After several other turf field positions, Gold received an offer with the Blue Rocks. Twenty years later, Gold is still happily caring for the Blue Rocks field. “It “grew” on me,” he said of the field.

Just like the field, Holganix Bio 800⁺ grew on Gold too. He first started testing the Holganix program in early 2012. By 2013, after seeing great results, Gold decided to jump on board. “Root depth is what I notice the most,” says Gold who reports seeing 6 to 8 inch roots throughout the year. “Just the other day, we replaced the irrigation head. When we removed sections of the turf to replace the irrigation, it is like picking up a bowling ball because of all the roots.” All in all, Gold says he has longer roots than ever before.

The cool thing about Holganix Bio 800⁺, says Gold is that it really is healthy for the plant. At the end of the day, “The turf plant and the human body are pretty similar,” says Gold. For a human, eating too much carbs or bad fats can be damaging to your health. For turf, synthetics act the same way. “My goal is to nurture a healthy plant not create a fat one.” Holganix Bio 800⁺ allows Gold to utilize drastically less nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides while promoting plant health. 

"It all started when The State University of New York at Fredonia started creating programs campus-wide to involve less chemicals and more organic products. That program involves everything from cleaning products to the way we care for our plants and turf," says Head Grounds Supervisor Richard Newton of his search for organic turf products.

Holganix caught his eye because it allowed Newton to reduce the use of synthetic fertilizer use on campus grounds and fields.

Holganix is a 100% organic, bionutritional turf and plant fertility product that allows fertilizer users like Newton to drastically reduce their synthetic inputs (pesticides and nitrogen fertilizers). It functions like a probiotic, naturally building up the plant to promote growth and better withstand insects and disease. 

So far, Newton reports that the increased, "root growth we have seen has not only caused the turf to absorb more nutrients, thereby cutting down on waste and runoff, but also allowed us to cut down on our chemical fertilizer use by 20% this first year alone." Root growth has increased by 2+ inches and some root systems exceed 6 inches in total length.

"There have been many benefits to using Holganix," says Newton. Color has been great, even with the reduction in nitrogen fertilizer and turf plant and root density has improved. Furthermore, despite a long history of suffering from leaf spot, that too has been more easily controlled.

The soccer field is sand-based and features 100% blue grass turf. With the start of soccer season, Newton reports that they have had great results with color and wear tolerance. The softball and baseball fields have been maintained with a 50% reduction in inputs.

Newton started the Holganix program with a one-time application of 14 ounces per 1,000 square feet of Holganix in early spring. Following the initial application, Newton and his team have applied two applications of 7 ounces per 1,000 square feet each. "It was nice to be presented with the opportunity to use Holganix by our friends at Lakeside Sod [a New York-based distributor of Holganix products]," says Newton.

"While we are primarily using the product on our athletic fields, we've also used Holganix on high visible and well-trafficked areas around the campus," says Newton. "There has been an easily noticeable improvement in color and density of the grass."

Newton isn't the only one that's excited about the performance of Holganix on the turf. According to Senior Athletics Groundskeeper Brent Kawski, "The coloring and root growth are phenomenal. I look forward to seeing what the turf looks like in the spring and next summer, after having a full year of the product at work on the field."

Ultimately, turf performance isn't the only thing that matters to Newton. "As Head Grounds Supervisor, my role is not to just look at the quality of the grass on the playing field, but also to look at what I am subjecting students to, as far as chemicals, and also to make sure that our turf maintenance dollars are spent in the most efficient way possible. From what I have seen so far of Holganix, I think the product fits all those needs in the best possible way."